Love Bugs

Ever heard of a love bug? Not this one...

I'm talking about the one below. The one crawling across my living room. See him there? He's red and black. He actually can fly. But he's a little lazy when he's inside, so he crawls. 

Can't see him very well? How about his brother here on my wall? See him?

I had never heard of a love bug until last month. Then, suddenly, the front of our house was covered in these little bugs. They were annoying us, especially since they come by the thousands. Seriously. 

Apparently, they are typically found in Florida. I was reading a book about DisneyWorld that talked about love bugs and how they fly through the air, mating with each other as they fly or crawl around. It also said their swarming season was in September (that's when they first appeared at our house). While we live in north Alabama, the behavior sounded just like the bugs we had been seeing. So I stopped reading and rushed to Google a picture of love bugs and sure enough, that's what we have. Love bugs. 

There is NOTHING to love about these bugs. 

They come into our living room because they are swarmed right outside the door. The front of our house gets direct sunlight for most of the day. They apparently like that and so it's impossible to escape them. Thankfully, they don't go much farther than the doorway. I don't know what I'd do if they were all over the house- move out, I guess! They are also relatively slow bugs, so it's easy to kill them once they come in. Still, it's annoying.

We don't typically like chemicals, but we hate any bugs in our house, even if they are just by the doorway. It's hard enough to keep Jaxon from crawling over to eat his siblings shoes or the leaves they track in. I certainly don't want to have to worry about him grabbing a bug. So my husband sprayed some bug spray outside of the house, but nothing happened. We still have love bugs. Apparently, they are immune to normal pest control spray.

Love bug orgies on the corner of our house. 

Remember me saying that I read that love bugs mate as they fly or crawl around? That's so true. They pretty much spend their entire lives making babies. Because of their incredible reproductive abilities, my love bug dilemma doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. 

So...if anyone has any advice on how to kill these bugs, or at least make them stop liking our house so much, I'd be eternally grateful.